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|  NORTHF IELD,  MASS.,  ’87. 

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“Strengthen,  O  God,  that  which  thou  hast  wrought  for  us. 


Northfield,  Mass.,  July,  1887. 

Across  the  Connecticut  River,  at  Mount  Hermon,  a  great  work  was  begun  twelve 
months  ago.  One  hundred  young  men,  who  had  come  from  widely  separated  colleges 
for  Bible  study,  olfered  themselves  for  foreign  mission  service.  Since  then  the  Spirit  has 
been  moving  mightily  among  the  colleges  and  seminaries  of  Canada  and  of  the  United 
States,  until  over  two  thousand  two  hundred  students  (of  whom  five  hundred  and  fifty  are 
women)  have  volunteered  for  the  foreign  fields.  This  together  with  the  hundreds  in 
England  makes  our  number  about  three  thousand. 

Of  this  number  one  hundred  are  gathered  in  Northfield,  and  we  send  a  word  of  hearty 
good  cheer  to  our  fellow  volunteers  in  England  and  America.  “  Be  steadfast,  unmove¬ 
able.”  “Sanctify  yourselves:  for  to-morrow  the  Lord  will  do  wonders  among  you.” 
“  The  Lord  said  unto  me,  Behold,  I  have  begtm  to  give  Sihon  and  his  land  before  thee : 
begin  to  possess.” 


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“  The  missionary  fire  needs  fuel  as  well  as  draught.”  The  home  work  is  constantly 
before  our  eyes,  so  let  us  keep  the  foreign  field  ever  in  view ;  try  to  grasp  its  numbers,  to 
examine  its  critical  condition,  and  to  remember  that  “  we  must  strike  not  only  when  the 
iron  is  hot,  but  where  the  iron  is  hot.”  Foreign  missions  have  more  than  a  passing 
notice  in  the  Word  of  God.  Through  the  Old  Testament  runs  the  silver  cord,  and  in  the 
Gospels  and  Epistles  we  have  the  golden  bowl. 

Some  give  a  discouraging  report  of  the  land  to  be  possessed.  But  “  Let  us  go  up 
at  once  and  possess  it ;  for  we  are  well  able  to  overcome  it.”  Shall  the  world  be  evan¬ 
gelized  in  our  life-time  ?  Is  the  idea  chimerical  ?  The  Earl  of  Shaftesbury  said,  “  During 
the  latter  part  of  these  centuries,  it  has  been  in  the  power  of  those  who  hold  the  truth 
*  *  *  *  to  evangelize  the  globe  fifty  times  over.”  One  hundred  and  twenty  of  the  mis¬ 
sionaries  in  China,  representatives  of  twenty-one  Protestant  missionary  societies,  say, 
“  We  want  China  emancipated  from  the  thraldom  of  sin  in  this  generation.  It  is  possi¬ 
ble.  Our  Lord  has  said  ‘according  to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you.’  The  church  of  God 
can  do  it.”  The  Israelites  took  forty  years  for  an  eleven  days’  journey.  Is  the  sin  to  be 
repeated  ? 

Three  years  ago  a  missionary  volunteer  determined  to  do  all  he  could  for  foreign 
missions  during  his  theological  course.  On  entering  the  Theological  Seminary  he  found 
none  expecting  to  go.  By  the  time  of  his  graduation  twenty  had  enlisted  for  foreign 
work.  There  is  no  better  opportunity  to  be  a  foreign  missionary  than  during  a  college 
course.  Get  another  to  enlist,  and  at  one  stroke  you  double  your  missionary  life.  Not 


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only  this.  Your  united  efforts  in  enlisting  others  God  only  can  measure.  “  Five  of  you 
shall  chase  an  hundred,  and  an  huhdred  of  you  shall  put  ten  thousand  to  flight.” 

Mr.  Johnston,  of  the  British  Educational  Commission  for  India,  says  that  during  the 
past  hundred  years  the  heathen  and  Mohammedans  have  increased  two  hundred  millions. 
For  each  individual  won  to  Christianity  there  have  been  seventy  additions  to  the  ranks  of 
the  unevangelized.  It  is  estimated  that  of  the  two  hundred  millions  in  Africa  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  forty  millions  have  not  been  touched  by  Christian  teachers.  This  one  field 
would  swallow  up  our  three  thousand  volunteers  and  cry  for  more.  Then  India  numbers 
three  hundred  millions — or  more  than  double  the  population  of  (he  Western  Flemispliere. 
And  China’s  four  hundred  million  souls  cry  “  We  pray  help  us''*  Thousands  of  square 
miles,  densely  populated,  have  never  been  trodden  by  Christian  feet.  *•  There  remaineth 
yet  very  much  land  to  be  possessed.” 

If  these  numbers  call  for  help,  the  rush  of  infidelity  on  their  crumbling  faiths  calls 
for  haste.  Dr.  Chamberlain  says  India  is  at  present  wonderfully  prepared  for  Christ,  and 
that  if  this  opportunity  is  let  slip,  at  least  two  generations  will  pass  before  another  such 
opportunity  can  be  offered.  God  has  cast  Japan  into  a  furnace  and  it  is  molten.  In  what 
mould  is  it  to  be  set  ?  History  gives  us  not  one  example  of  such  a  crisis.  There  is  need 
not  only  for  action,  but  for  action  now.  The  Mohammedans  are  making  prodigious 


*  To  emphasize  the  need  for  more  recruits  let  us  circulate  far  and  wide  the  enclosed 
diagram. 


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efforts  to  convert  Africa.  They  are  sweeping  through  the  interior.  Thousands  of  the  abor¬ 
igines  are  yielding  to  them  hecause  the  Moslem  faith  appeals  to  the  sensuous  and  is 
propagated  by  the  sword.  It  is  doubtless  two  or  three  times  as  hard  to  convert  Moham¬ 
medans  as  to  convert  Pagans.  Therefore  delay  in  occupying  Africa  multiplies  the  diffi¬ 
culties  of  evangelization.  The  present  crisis  is  greater  than  that  of  Esther’s  day  when 
“  the  posts  that  rode  upon  swift  steeds  that  were  used  in  the  king’s  service  went  out, 
being  hastened  and  pressed  on  by  the  king’s  commandment.” 

Due  prominence  is  not  given  to  the  reflex  influence  of  foreign  missions.  The  mis¬ 
sionary  movement  among  the  university  students  of  England  and  Scotland  resulted  in 
revivals  at  home.  A  prominent  speaker  recently  said,  “If  young  men  should  rise  in 
large  numbers  and  go  to  the  foreign  field,  there  would  be  such  a  revival  at  home  that  men 
would  flock  into  the  ministry.”  Mr.  Stanley  Smith  said  in  Exeter  Hall,  “  It  is  my  earn¬ 
est  prayer  that  there  may  be  such  an  outlet  of  men  and  women  from  this  country  as  shall 
lead  to  an  inlet  of  blessing  from  heaven.”  “  There  is  that  scattereth,  and  yet  increaseth ; 
and  there  is  that  withholdeth  more  than  is  meet,  but  it  tendeth  to  poverty.” 

Some  say  there  are  heathen  enough  at  home.  “  What  can  be  more  shameful  than  to 
make  the  imperfection  of  our  Christianity  at  home  an  excuse  for  not  doing  our  work 
abroad  ?  It  is  as  shameless  as  it  is  shameful.  It  is  like  a  patricide  asking  the  judge  to  have 
pity  on  his  orphanhood.” 

In  the  United  States  we  have  an  average  of  one  minister  to  seven  hundred  men, 
women  and  children.  Only  one  and  three-tenths  per  cent,  of  our  ministry  go  to  the  for- 


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eign  field.  According  to  the  latest  figures,  out  of  each  hundred  thousand  communicants 
in  America,  only  twenty-one  go  to  the  foreign  field ;  and  out  of  each  hundred  thousand 
communicants  in  ail  Christendom,  (Europe  and  America)  only  twenty-three.  Hundreds 
of  devoted  students  in  our  colleges  need  only  to  have  the  work  brought  clearly  before 
them  and  they  will  enlist.  Let  meetings  for  volunteers  never  conflict  with  the  regular 
college  monthly  missionary  meeting,  which  should  be  the  focal  point  of  all  our  efforts. 
Upon  it  let  us  bring  to  bear  the  freshest  facts  and  most  telling  figures.  This  meeting 
would  be  a  power  if  we  realized  that  forty  millions  die  every  year  “  without  Christ  .  .  .  . 
having  no  hope.”  “When  I  say  unto  the  wicked,  O  wicked  man,  thou  shalt  surely  die, 
and  thou  dost  not  speak  to  warn  the  wicked  from  his  way ;  that  wicked  man  shall  die  in 
his  iniquity,  but  his  blood  zvill  I  require  at  thine  hand.'1'1 

Will  there  be  money  enough  to  back  the  troops  ?  It  is  a  fact  that  Christians  are  not 
realizing  the  privilege  of  giving.  But  this  does  not  lessen  our  responsibility  to  go.  Others 
have  worked  their  way  before  the  mast,  why  should  not  we  ?  If  possible,  let  us  support 
ourselves.  Eight  missionaries  of  the  Zenana  Society  of  England  are  self-supporting.  If 
our  parents  are  planning  for  us  a  tour  through  Europe  or  year^  in  a  conservatory,  might 
they  not  instead  rejoice  to  support  us  as  foreign  missionaries  ?  The  first  missionaries  from 
New  England  were  not  sent  until  they  showed  a  willingness  to  work  their  way.  Several 
couples  of  students  making  a  tour  among  the  churches  of  Canada  have  been  blessed  in  secur¬ 
ing  money.  When  a  friend  offers  to  support  any  one  of  us,  let  us  make  it  known.  A  lady 
volunteer  has  found  this  her  richest  summer,  as  in  the  prospect  of  soon  entering  foreign 


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work  she  has  been  helped  to  present  missionary  facts  to  girls.  The  ladies  of  one  church 
have  engaged  to  support  her,  another  club  of  ladies  has  started  a  fund  for  an  outfit,  and  a 
ladies’  Board  has  offered  to  send  her.  There  are  two  colleges  in  Canada,  neither  large 
nor  rich,  each  of  which  is  about  to  send  a  man  to  China  and  support  him  for  life.  Why 
should  not  one  hundred  colleges  immediately  fall  into  line  ?  Most  of  us  are  connected 
not  alone  with  a  college,  but  a  church,  a  sabbath  school,  a  city  Y.  M.  C.  A.  We  furnish 
a  “living  link  ”  between  these  and  the  foreign  field  and  secure  constant  prayers  for  our 
work  by  enlisting  these  to  support  us  through  our  respective  church  Boards.  Eighty-five 
people,  each  contributing  twenty-five  cents  a  week,  will  pay  the  salary  of  a  missionary 
and  of  his  wife.  One  Y.  M.  C.  A.  has  adopted  the  twenty-five  cent  plan.  The  Young 
People’s  Association  of  a  church  in  Chicago  is  about  to  issue  cards  ranging  from  five 
cents  to  five  dollars  a  month.  Out  of  every  dollar  contributed  to  God’s  service  only  two 
cents  go  to  the  foreign  field.  Every  tick  of  your  watch  sounds  the  death-knell  of  a 
heathen  soul.  Every  breath  we  draw,  four  pass  from  this  world  to  the  next  without  having 
heard  of  Christ.  •*  The  heathen  are  dying  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  thousand  a  day,  and 
Christians  are  giving  to  save  them  at  the  rate  of  one-tenth  of  a  cent  a  day.”  “  Cry  aloud, 
spare  not,  lift  up  thy  voice  like  a  trumpet  and  shew  my  people  their  transgressions.” 

For  us  volunteers  the  most  vital  question  is,  not  are  we  financially  equipped  but  are 
we  spiritually  equipped  ?  Is  the  Holy  Ghost  working  in  and  through  us  ?  The  best 
preparation  for  winning  souls  abroad  is  winning  souls  at  home.  I.et  each  of  us  daily  strive  to 
reach  an  unconverted  person.  A  college  man  took  for  his  motto,  “  The  whole  world  for 


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Christ,  beginning  at  my  college.”  May  this  year  be  the  most  soul-saving  year  ever 
known  in  our  colleges.  “He  that  is  wise  winneth  souls.”  Already  souls  have  been  won 
by  our  number.  We  have  seen  a  cloud  the  size  of  a  man’s  hand.  It  means  abundance 
of  rain.  It  means  winning  souls  at  home  while  preparing  to  go  abroad.  But  this  rain  is 
conditioned — “  Bring  ye  the  whole  tithe  into  the  storehouse  .  .  .  and  prove  me  now  here¬ 
with  if  I  will  not  .  .  .  pour  you  out  a  blessing  that  there  shall  not  be  room  enough  to 
receive  it.”  It  was  said  of  Joseph,  “Can  we  find  such  a  one  as  this,  a  man  in  whom  the 
Spirit  of  God  is  ?  ’’  And  “  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Take  thee  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun, 
a  man  in  whom  is  the  Spirit.” 

The  command  is,  “  Be  filled  with  the  Spirit.”  God  says  to  each  of  us,  “Art  thou 
willing  to  be  emptied  in  order  to  be  filled?”  If  so,  “The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  will 
come  upon  thee  and  thou  shalt  be  turned  into  another  man.”  This  promise  is  for  us  all. 
The  hungry  and  thirsty  shall  be  filled.  “  I  will  pour  water  upon  him  that  is  thirsty.” 

Do  we  tremble  because  “weak,”  “foolish,”  “  despised,”  “base  ”  ?  Such  are  God’s 
chosen  ones.  The  first  heralds  of  resurrection  news  started  “with  fear,”  but  “  as  they 
went  to  tell  .  .  .  Jesus  met  them.”  Many  a  missionary  has  started  with  fear  but  assur¬ 
ance  has  come  in  God’s  seal  on  his  work.  What  we  need  is  power.  “  The  kingdom  of 
God  is  not  in  word  but  in  power”  “  Ye  shall  receive  power  after  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
is  come  upon  you  and  ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me  .  .  .  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth.”  After  our  Savior  had  said  these  words  and  had  ascended  the  disciples  returned 
to  Jerusalem  where  they  “  all  with  one  accord  continued  steadfastly  in  prayer’1''  for  ten 


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days.  When  “  they  were  all  together  in  one  place  ”  the  Holy  Spirit  came.  They 
received  power.  Three  thousand  were  added  in  a  single  day.  AU  pray :  all  receive 
power.  This  Fall  some  of  us  sail  for  foreign  fields.  Some  return  to  our  colleges.  But 
all  of  us  are  entitled  to  be  missionaries  now — to  win  souls  now — to  be  filled  with  the 
Holy  Spirit  now.  Some  of  us  are  asking  this  blessing  of  God  every  day  at  the  noon 
hour.  If  every  volunteer  will  join,  a  volume  of  prayer  will  daily  rise  to  God  from  three 
thousand  hearts.  “  They  were  all  together  in  one  place  .  .  .  and  they  were  all  filled  with 
the  Holy  Spirit.”  They  were  “  day  by  day  continuing  steadfastly  with  one  accord  in  the 
temple  .  .  .  and  the  Lord  added  to  them  day  by  day  those  that  were  being  saved.”* 

Committee  in  behalf  of  the  One  Hundred  : 

R.  A.  Scott  Macfie,  Cambridge  Univ.,  England. 

H.  F.  Laflamme,  Univ.  of  Toronto,  Canada. 

C.  F.  Hersey,  Bowdoin  College,  Maine. 

S.  C.  Mitchell,  Georgetown  College,  Kentucky. 

J.  N.  Forman,  Princeton  Theol.  Sem.,  New  Jersey. 

R.  P.  Wilder,  Princeton  College,  New  Jersey. 


*  As  we  receive  answers  to  our  united  prayers  let  us  make  them  known  that  we  may 
return  united  thanks.  Will  volunteers  in  Great  Britain  please  report  to  ‘‘.Foreign  Mission 
Volunteers  ”  Caius  College,  Cambridge  University,  Eng.  Those  in  Canada  to  “F.  M.  V.”  Knox 
College,  Toronto.  Those  in  the  United  States  to  “  F.  M.  V.”  Union  Theological  Sem.,  Cor. 
70th  St.  and  Park  Ave.,  N.  Y. 


Since  this  letter  has  gone  to  the  press,  the  undergraduates  of  Princeton  College  have 
subscribed  $1,460.00  for  the  support  of  a  college  missionary  and  native  preachers.  The 
missionary  is  a  recent  graduate  and  sailed  for  India  within  two  days  after  his  support 
was  pledged.  And  the  undergraduates  of  Princeton  Theological  Seminary  have  also 
subscribed  $050.00  towards  the  salary  of  a  missionary,  and  expect  to  have  the  full 
amount  ($700.00)  in  a  few  days. 

Sept.  23. 


A  Missionary  Band.  The  Bible  House,  Toronto,  Canada.  Price  55  c. 

The  Crisis  of  Missions.  A.  T.  Pierson.  Carter  Bros.,  530  Broadway,  N.  Y.  Price  63c, 
(Special  offer  to  volunteers.) 

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